Inside Out 2

My sister and I crossed another movie off her list last night by seeing Inside Out 2.  The theater was absolutely packed and we heard both kids and adults laughing out loud the entire time.  Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Tony Hale), Anger (Lewis Black), and Disgust (Liza Lapira) believe they have done a good job creating a Sense of Self for Riley (Kensington Tallman) by moving all of her bad memories to the back of her mind.  However, when Riley turns 13, a new group of emotions appear, including Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edibiri), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), and Ennui (Adele Exarchopoulos), and they disrupt Headquarters.  Riley is invited to a hockey camp with her friends Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green) and Grace (Grace Lu) but, when they tell her that they will be going to a different high school, Anxiety takes over to make sure that Riley does whatever she can to make the hockey team at her new school so she won’t be alone.  This includes shunning Bree and Grace in favor of Val (Lilimar), the team captain, and other actions that corrupt her Sense of Self.  As Joy fights to regain control, she realizes that all of Riley's emotions are necessary to create a more authentic Sense of Self.  What I loved most about this sequel is that the angst of being a teenager is shown so authentically.  I was particularly struck by how well Anxiety is portrayed, particularly when Riley is compelled to hide who she really is in order to avoid being rejected because I think almost every teen experiences this at some point.  Several scenes really resonated with me personally, such as when Riley is kept awake at night by the projections of everything that could possibly go wrong before a game and when she has a panic attack (this is very well done and reduced me to tears), because I have certainly experienced both many times.  I also really loved a scene where Riley chooses Joy as she rediscovers the real reason why she loves playing hockey (I also cried during this whole sequence) because I think doing things simply for the joy it brings rather than for a possible outcome is an important message.  In addition to feeling all of the feels, this made me (and my sister who is very reserved) laugh out loud because it is so funny and so clever.  The animation is incredibly vibrant, particularly the hockey sequences, and the voice cast is excellent (with Poehler and Hawke as standouts).  I loved this (I think I might love it more than the original) and I highly recommend it!